


Stuck Like Glue

by PhantomWriterAnon



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), M/M, Nightmares, Stabbing, Titan Eren Yeager, Titan Shifters, Titan War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 22:04:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11389323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomWriterAnon/pseuds/PhantomWriterAnon
Summary: Levi isn't the most comforting of people, but when it comes to his five-year-old daughter, Acantha... he tries.The one in which Eren and Levi's daughter is also a titan shifter and the government wants to take her away.





	Stuck Like Glue

"D-Daddy?" A small hand snakes out from the blanket blob that has taken refuge at the foot of Levi and Eren's bed and grabs at what she assumes is Levi's foot... "You 'wake, Daddy?" The foot twitches, before shifting beneath the scratchy woolen blanket as Levi turns over. 

"Whazza matta?" Levi slurs, his voice still thick with sleep as he danced along the thin line between consciousness and unconsciousness. He gropes blindly, eyes cloudy with sleep, and jumps when his hand comes in contact with the mass of blankets. "The fuck?"

In lieu of answer, the other hand snakes out and takes hold of the blanket, and she uses it like a ladder to climb into bed beside her father. Her own blanket tumbles off in the meantime, revealing a disheveled head of black curls and red-rimmed silver-blue eyes. Her cheeks are blotchy and still wet with the tears that had been streaming down her face when she woke from her nightmare just a few moments before. 

Plopping down on the spot usually reserved for her other father, she draws her blanket back over her body like a cocoon and stuffs her left thumb into her mouth. The other hand proceeds to shove at Levi until, with a slightly more coherent grunt, the captain awakens and fixes her with one of his infamous glares. Undeterred, the child returns the glare, and the two maintain eye contact for several moments in absolute silence. 

Levi is the first to relent, reaching out to pull the little girl down beside him and nestle her to his chest. "Did you have another bad dream?"

She nods hurriedly, before burying her face in her father's chest. Fresh tears are beading in her eyes, and she doesn't want her father to see her cry. "Can I sleep here tonight?"

"Acantha..." he gives her a withering look - this is not the first time that they have had this conversation, and he doubts it will be the last. It is precisely because Levi loves his husband that he can admit the younger man has absolutely no backbone when it comes to their little angel, and lets her do whatever the hell she pleases. 

"Daddy?" Her lower lip begins to wobble, and she pulls at the front of Levi's dressing gown. "Just this once? I promise, you won't even know I'm here!"

Those are famous last words. Levi knows from experience that what Acantha lacks in size, the five-year-old undoubtedly makes up for in strength. Within an hour of slipping into bed between himself and Eren, she'll have both of them sprawled out over the hardwood floor. Eren will wake up with bruises he doesn't remember and Levi with a gash on his forehead from his head colliding with the bedside table on his way to his date with the floor. 

Needless to say, he is not overly thrilled by her proposition. With Eren away for the night, the little terror will be able to focus her full attention on him and he isn't sure his body can handle that sort of stress after - A sharp, shooting pain just above his left hip draws him from his thoughts, and he is reminded of why he is sleeping fitfully in their bed all on his own. The sudden wetness that accompanies the pain has him rolling his eyes - it appears to be time to change the bandages. 

Levi tosses the blankets back and slowly ambles to his feet, before extending a hand toward Acantha. The five-year-old hesitates for a moment, before accepting the silent offering and stumbling off the bed after him. He leads them into the bathroom, before motioning for his daughter to sit on the toilet. He sets about cleaning the wound, thankful that the bloody mess is facing away from her. Acantha seems distracted anyhow, and has now started chewing on her poor blanket. 

"You want to tell me what the dream was about?" He winces as the cool night air hits the stab wound in his side - almost two inches deep and healing just as slowly as one would imagine. He'd lost count of the number of stitches it had taken to close it up - something like two-hundred, he thinks blandly.

"Papa and I... we're different." Acantha mumbles around her thumb. Levi turns and gently pulls the digit from the child's mouth, and urges her to repeat herself. "I'm different."

"Well, yes. Of course you are. The world would be rather dull if we were all alike, don't you think?" Levi asks as he takes a damp washcloth and cleans the blood from his skin.

Acantha shifts nervously, and it is clear there is more to this story than she is letting on. Unable to meet her father's eyes, she whispers, "I overheard Daddy and Erwin oji-san and Hanji oja-san talking..." Levi freezes, half-certain he knows where this conversation is heading. "You said that Papa was a shifter... and that I was likely a shifter, too."

Levi finds himself at an utter loss for words, and without a clue on how to comfort the distressing child that never should have heard that conversation. "There's nothing wrong with being a shifter, darling."

Acantha looks at him, silver-blue eyes wide as saucers, "But aren't titans bad? A titan killed baachan." She says.

How can he make this small child comprehend something that even  _he_ has trouble grasping? "Some titans are bad, yes. Just like some people are bad." He sighs, "Papa has worked hard to learn how to control his titan, and is still learning. He's helping us to fight back against the bad titans that want to hurt us."

The five-year-old sniffles, "Then, if I can learn to control it, why does the government want to take me away from you?"

Levi's eyes widen. So  _that_ is what all of this is about. Damn Erwin and his goddamn big fucking mouth. There's no reason that the child ever had to know about that, because Levi has no intention of letting their plans come to fruition. He'd taken down thirty-five titans in his career - he had no reason to fear a five-year-old child. And teaching her that she is a monster, a creature of nightmares, is absolutely unacceptable as far as Levi is concerned. 

Once he is finished dressing the wound, he bends down and scoops the now-crying child into his arms and hugs her tight to his chest. "Nobody is going to take you away from Papa and I, you understand? You're stuck with us for life, brat."

"You mean it?" She sniffles, rubbing at her teary eyes with a balled-up fist. 

"I don't make promises that I can't keep, brat. And I don't go back on my word." He pressed a kiss to her hairline. "Now, what do you say we hit the sheets? I don't know about you, but I'm beat."


End file.
